Mobile Phones Eliminate Single-Serving Devices

As chips and sensors become smaller and more advanced, mobile phones are beginning to swallow and adopt any number of new functions. As a result, they are quickly replacing other single-serving devices, including GPS units and cameras.

The first big shift took place a few years ago when mobile phones added headphone jacks and consumers began leaving their dedicated music players at home to conveniently play music directly from the phone.

This shift happened again recently when GPS chips became accurate, small and cheap enough to allow turn-by-turn directions directly from your phone. This quickly eliminated the need for a GPS unit in the car for many people.

With the latest advancements in image sensors, we’re about to see the eradication of two other device: the pocket point-and-shoot camera and the video camera.

OmniVision, a company specializing in the image sensors for mobile phones, cameras and laptops, announced a new image sensor chip capable of recording 14.6 megapixel single images, or full 60-frames-per-second 1080p high-definition video. This is the same quality, or better, than most high-end cameras on the market today. The new chip also captures much higher light levels, creating a clearer picture and increasing image stabilization while shooting HD video.

If you’ve purchased a modern cellphone over the last three years, chances are you’re already walking around with a three- to five-megapixel camera built into your phone. But due to the amount of light these sensors need to capture, the images can be very poor. If consumers want to take higher-quality images, or video, you need to carry a separate dedicated camera.

It won’t be long before the images on mobile phones become equal quality to handheld cameras, said Devang Patel, senior marketing manager at OmniVision. He said, “Obviously the hand-held camera will have extra features, like better zoom, but you’ll start to see similar performance between cameras and camera-phones.”

Traditional cameras and camera-phones use what is called FSI, or Front Side Illumination technology. With these cameras, when you take a picture the light has to pass through a series of layers before it reaches the sensors that capture and interpret your image. The new OmniVision sensor use a technology called BSI, or Back Side Illumination, basically turning the camera chip upside down so that the light is collected through the back of the chip, bypassing the extra layers. This provides a direct path to capture the light and results in much better camera performance. Although NASA has been using the B.S.I. image technology in satellites for years, companies like OmniVision now plan to make these sensors on a massive scale, quickly bringing this technology to consumers.

As these higher-quality sensors make their way into the next generation of mobile devices, the secondary camera, or video camera, may soon sit on the shelf at home with a pile of other single serving gadgets.

There might be another death in the camera family too. As the sensors allow more light, there becomes less need for a flash. Mr. Patel said the regular digital cameras will probably still have a flash for quite a while, but with these new sensors some devices will eliminate the flash entirely. Mr. Patel added, “The nice thing about having a very low-light sensitivity sensor is you don’t have to use the flash, and without it you get better pictures.”